Whether or not making the College Football Playoff this year would have changed the tone for Florida State University’s mentality to remain an ACC member will always be up for debate.
Even before going undefeated, the “war chants” coming from Tallahassee have grown louder and louder over the years. As early as 2012 rumors existed of Florida State’s desire to leave the ACC.
The Florida State Board of Trustees set the tone in August of this year when they met and let it be known they aren’t happy with the status quo of the ACC. Now that unhappiness has unraveled morphing into a supernova with a lawsuit, one that has serious allegations attached to it that has merit.
FSU Board of Trustees Chairman Peter Collins said the lawsuit “represents the response to a long list of failures by the ACC, and while Florida State has challenged the ACC to be better for its members, the Conference has responded with inaction.”
“The underperformance by the ACC has ramped up dramatically in just the last few years,” said Collins. “The ACC has also unfairly — and we believe illegally — sought to prevent members from exploring their fundamental right to withdraw by threatening to impose an astounding and pernicious half-billion-dollar penalty. It’s simply unconscionable.”
University President Richard McCullough endorsed the Board’s actions: “I fully support the Board’s decision to take this legal action against the ACC. It is becoming painfully apparent that Florida State’s athletic ambitions and institutional priorities are no longer served by the ACC’s leadership.”
Florida State, in its lawsuit, has seven counts of allegations of misconduct by the ACC:
Florida State begins its lawsuit citing the ACC punishments violate Florida Statute 542.18 which states “Restraint of trade or commerce.—Every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce in this state is unlawful.”
The purported figure alleged by Florida State for the Seminoles to leave the ACC is $572 million. To put that number into perspective, the total endowment has total assets valued (as of September 30, 2023) at $983 million. Writing a check isn’t in the University’s best interest, but Florida State is trying to convey that the punitive instruments the ACC uses to keep members from would indeed restrict the university from being competitive in the national space both on and off the field.
The move Florida State is trying to facilitate is to maintain its brand among the Top 10 in the nation. As media deals become more and more lucrative, the ACC contract no longer competes. It is that money that keeps facilities, coaching talent, and other resources on par or better than their competition. It is all a race to attract top talented students and athletes to further the FSU brand.
If the school would loan the athletic department the $572 million to pay the ACC to leave, the long-term impact would harm the school’s ability to maintain its academic and athletic resources that attract top students and athletes.
FSU analogized the ACC’s failures to renegotiate with ESPN, similar to that of the Pac-12, of which we all saw the demise. The university began to show the disparity ACC teams receive in media rights in comparison to the SEC and Big Ten. The 2024 per-member media rights revenues show the ACC around $35 million per member, while each of the Big Ten and SEC schools are north of $60 million. While the ACC’s will remain flat, both conferences will grow exponentially and both will be in a new contract again prior to the 2036 ACC contract expiring.
Using the Pac-12 precedent and the growing disparity in media rights, the university feels the conference breached its contract for the following reasons:
I feel Florida State is going to have a tough time proving the ACC diminished the members’ ability to compete in championships when the ACC has been one of the more successful conferences in national championships in the last decade.
Plus the last bullet point shows FSU is really going to milk the College Football Playoff omission for all it is worth. It’s also hard to deny and something the ACC will have to defend is what fiscal responsibility it has demonstrated. In my mind, the ACC let ESPN off the hook for the nearly three-year delay to launch the network and did not use the leverage it had to renegotiate Tier I market levels.
The most alarming is the “Nine Year Option” where if ESPN does not activate a renewal by February 2025, it can opt-out, and the ACC would have no guaranteed network revenue and walk away.
This insecurity considering the massive successes of the Big Ten and SEC Networks to me is the fiduciary breakdown here with the ACC. With the ACC already undervalued, this was a golden opportunity for the conference to prudently take care of the assets of its league and get what it was worth with a great deal.
The omission from the College Football Playoff only added fuel to the FSU inferno of discontent. Florida State knows it can ill afford to stay where they are at and remain part of the national picture.
It isn’t just one year, or missing the College Football Playoff this year. It is another 13 years of being between $30 and $40 million short. What nearly $400 million more an SEC or Big Ten school will receive during that time over Florida State can change the trajectory of programs. This is the heart of the matter.
Some will say, Florida State signed a contract, I get that, but it seems two things happened:
Before we even can consider where Florida State may go whether it is one of the other three Power 4 conferences, it has to break free first. I feel the Seminoles have a legitimate case, and the history of missteps by the ACC will leave Commissioner Jim Phillips reeling here.
We actually might get to know the tightly sealed and protected ACC Grant of Rights contract that is under lock and key and strict supervision in ACC Headquarters.
For now, the Florida State case makes sense.
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